Legally Blind Man Sues N.Y.C. For Stop And Frisk Post-Federal Ruling

Fifty-four-year-old Allen Moye (pictured), who was reportedly stopped and frisked in Harlem three years ago, is suing N.Y.C. for false arrest, after a federal judge made it easier for citizens to sue over the practice, according to the Daily News.

Moye, who is legally blind, was allegedly waiting for a friend on W. 118th Street in September 2010, when he says police approached him.

According to his lawsuit, officers then “snatched his identification from him. When Allen complained, the police spoke rudely to him and placed him under arrest.”

The suit also alleged that officers handcuffed and placed Moye in a police van for several hours.

“They treated me like I was from another planet, like I just landed in a space ship,” Moye told the Daily News. “They said they didn’t care about the Fourth Amendment. The one cop was crazy. If this had happened at night, I would have been killed.”

Moye ended up receiving charges related to credit card forgery — all his charges were dropped five months later.

“It was racial profiling, what they did,” Moye added Thursday. “It’s a different Jim Crow. They try to put everybody behind bars to do their work.”

Moye’s suit is the first after Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin recently ruled against stop and frisk. Her decision noted that the department routinely performed “unconstitutional stops and conduct[ed] unconstitutional frisks” that targeted young Black and Hispanic men.

Her decision came after a class action lawsuit against the city by the Center For Constitutional Rights, which brought victims of the policy and NYPD whistleblowers to center stage.

She ordered a federal monitor to oversee the department’s stop and frisk policy. Her ruling also made it easier for New Yorkers to sue the city if they feel they’ve been unfairly stopped and searched.

Moye’s lawsuit referenced the ruling, saying that “unconstitutional policies of profiling minorities may be inferred by the Aug. 12, 2013, decision…finding that the NYPD had violated the rights of thousands of citizens with respect to the application of its stop and frisk policy,”

The NYPD “intentionally conspired to fabricate evidence against him, including omitting and manipulating evidence…fabricating evidence and concealing exculpatory evidence,” the suit claims.